South Korea: Seoul resumes loudspeaker broadcasts of propaganda

South Korea on Monday ordered border propaganda operations against North Korea to resume for the first time in 11 years, in retaliation for landmine blasts that maimed two of its soldiers during a frontier patrol.

South Korea’s military had threatened that there would be unspecified “searing” consequences for the mine blasts in the Seoul-controlled southern part of the demilitarised zone, which has divided the peninsula since the end of the Korean War in 1953.

The mines exploded on the morning of August. 4 as eight South Korean soldiers were conducting a routine patrol along the border near the city of Paju.

One soldier wounded in the blasts underwent a double leg amputation, while another had one leg removed.

“We sternly urge North Korea to apologise for this provocation and punish those responsible”, Blue House spokesman Min Kyung Wook said.

A measure of how far the broadcasts are likely to provoke Pyongyang may be gauged by North Korea’s anger at repeated attempts by activists to float leaflet-laden balloons across from the South – the two sides even ended up exchanging machine gun fire over the issue last October.

The impact of the explosion resulted in serious injuries for two soldiers, 23-year-old Kim Jeong-won and his colleague only identified by his surname Ha.

More than a million mines are believed to be buried inside the DMZ, and North Korean mines have occasionally washed down a swollen river into the South, killing or injuring civilians.

North Korea, however, has remained mum on the incident. The United Nations Command investigation ruled out the possibility that they had drifted from another location due to flooding or shifting soil.

Foreigners detained by North Korean authorities are required to make public, officially-scripted pronouncements of their guilt in order to help secure their eventual release.

The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said dense forests inside the DMZ made it almost impossible to detect movements of North Koreans.

“The wicked Japanese imperialists committed such unpardonable crimes as depriving Korea of even its standard time while mercilessly trampling down its land with 5,000 year-long history and culture and pursuing the unheard-of policy of obliterating the Korean nation”, the KCNA news agency declared.

North Korea’s land mine attack “is a clear act of military provocation that attempted to kill our soldiers”, the resolution reads.

The vice chief of the joint investigation team said, “We are sure that the explosion is done by North Korea’s PMD series mines”. Vowing to hit back, South Korea said Monday, Au…

“North Korea will pay a severe price for its provocation”, Goo said.